Mr. Jim Miley:

Senator Malcolm Byrne specifically asked what could be done about mobility. Education in Ireland is a unit within Enterprise Ireland and is responsible for marketing Ireland overseas as an education destination. Last spring, during events for St. Patrick's Day, which were virtual, as were all events this year, education was stitched in as one of the key pillars for promoting Ireland. The promotion of Ireland as a destination for enterprise and tourism is well heralded and has a strong track record. We need to elevate the promotion of Irish education through the Global Ireland initiative and otherwise. It would be very helpful if the committee could help to advocate for that. That is a two-way street. It promotes Ireland as a destination for international students to come here but it also promotes Irish students to institutions overseas.

The Senator asked about costs. There are two dimensions to that. First, there are significant signs of increased costs associated with key essentials, particularly laboratory supplies for universities. Many of those supplies come from or through the United Kingdom. This issue is not unique to our sector and arises right across the economy.

There has been a significant Brexit effect and it has been amplified by Covid. The freeing up of import issues, in the context of general supplies to the country, would help in that and, hopefully, help to mitigate the cost issue.

The second issue is building costs, which I referenced in my opening address, and we have seen that over the last year. There are a significant number of projects that amount to some tens of millions of euro that are under way across the system and we have already seen contractors make claims for additional costs. It is estimated that the increase could be of the order of 15%. Obviously that has been amplified by the Covid scenario and it is amplified by the Brexit effect because a very significant portion of building materials come from the UK. Our universities are aggressively contesting cost claims and will continue to do so. Regrettably, as probably with a lot of building contracts, there will ultimately be an upwards creep in some of those costs. These projects are being funded by a combination of loans through the European Investment Bank with some State supports and some philanthropic money. There is likely to be an additional call on some additional State supports too to get some of the existing projects over the line.